Editorial: Correct the worst nuisances of Arts, Beats & Eats festival

Complaints about noise from music events at Royal Oak’s successful 2012 Arts, Beats & Eats festival on Labor Day weekend tell the city and organizers the event needs some more tweaks.

They also remind those who didn’t attend that the event was very successful. The event drew patrons mostly from Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

Residents near the downtown Royal Oak area complained the noise from bands and helicopters made their windows rattle. They complained that the concerts exceeded promised closing times on a couple of nights of the four-day event.

Producer Jonathan Witz said the feedback otherwise was “overwhelmingly positive.”

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We don’t question the success of the event, its contribution to the host city and the expectation that it will remain for years to come.

But nearly 400,000 visitors over four days in a not very large shopping district, and the food, drink and entertainment that draws them there, leave a large footprint.

Crowd noise complaints were amazingly few — 29 — although one came from the city’s north end. City Manager Donald Johnson attributed that to a quirk in atmospheric conditions over the city; there were none from residents in between.

There was confusion between music cutoff times posted in a schedule, which stages they applied to and the times actually observed. It meant, according to one resident, that music continued to 11 p.m. on Labor Day, the night before most children were to attend school.

Witz has pledged to review the complaints and next year to conduct sound checks. We know that venue and sound system placement can make a difference in how far sound carries. We recall examples of successful changes in recent years in Mount Clemens and Ferndale.

Some people — downtown businesspeople included — believe AB&E should be ended or reined in in major ways. After 15 years of operation, 12 in Pontiac and the last three in Royal Oak, the event has almost as much momentum as the Woodward Dream Cruise. Major changes to rein in the nuisances are an unlikely option.

The event’s success is a part of the Royal Oak downtown’s success and in turn feeds that of its host.

Successful downtowns have a way of jostling and elbowing nearby neighbors and neighborhoods as they live, breathe and expand. AB&E is good for the city. But it can and should be tweaked to rein in the worst of the nuisances, those flying elbows.